TEAM CODE: TBT03014AA
Cuba, Once the sugar bowl of the world, has gradually closed and demolished hundreds of sugar mills over the country during the economic reform, as a result of domestic economic recession.
The chosen site, Hershey (Camilo Cienfuegos), was a self-sufficient model town famous for sugar production, where local development, cultural and social life was heavily centred around the factory. When the sugar mill fell apart, everything in the community was gradually lost, leaving a ghost town full of ruins and sadness.
Taken the location of the original sugar mill, the design of Casa Hershey explores a new architectural language by re-assembling crumbling metal leftovers from the factory into a residential architectural form in Cuban tradition rooted from the Spanish. Through the metallic facades and high ceiling rooms made from evaporators and tanks, albeit in unconventional materials, a sense of traditional Cuban house is preserved, with a series of gears and wheels re-defining the notion of traditional front porch and the central patio.
Casa Hershey is a house for Hershey people. It includes program of a mini-hotel, a bar, and a domino (Cuban game) centre, a sugar cane garden and a link bridge to the remnants of the original factory. Piece by piece, the design ensemble recollects the memories from local industrial glory and the residential tradition. It brings the life of Hershey people back to alive, showcasing hope of unique Cuban resiliency of “creating something out of nothing.”
“An honest and a decently good, site specific design with an interesting interpretation of history for the benefit of local people who were part of the Hershey town once. Clear presentation and an appropriate use of forms into spaces. Right scaling and the monotone renders rake up happy memories of the chocolate industrial towns of the 19th century, much like the Willy Wonka world of sugary sweetness. easy buildability and the adaptive reuse of the existing structures makes it easy to imagine as a real project well grounded in reality.”
-(Manish Gulati, M:OFA)
“Beautifully orchestrated”
-(Sanjay Puri, Sanjay Puri Architects)